February 15, 1996
Web posted at: 7 p.m. EST
From Correspondent Ed Garsten
PONTIAC, Michigan (CNN) -- A 12-member jury with four alternates has been chosen to hear the assisted suicide case against Dr. Jack Kevorkian.
Jury selection concluded Thursday afternoon for the trial, which is scheduled to start Tuesday.
Oakland County Circuit Judge Jessica Cooper dismissed 26 prospective jurors from the 60-member pool before the panel of eight men and eight women was selected.
A defiant Kevorkian arrived in court Thursday for the first day of jury selection wearing a cardboard sign that read: "Here's a victim of Engler's ruthless inquisition."
It is a reference to Gov. John Engler and Michigan's now-expired law banning assisted suicide. Kevorkian is accused of breaking the law.
Dressed in a light blue sweater, white shirt, striped tie and gray slacks, Kevorkian said the sign on his back was the only way he could "say something" to the court.
The right-to-die advocate is being tried on two counts of violating the law for two deaths he was present at in 1993.
The Michigan Court of Appeals has dismissed an appeal holding up the trial, allowing a ruling by a county circuit court judge to stand.
Judge Cooper ruled that a questionnaire asking potential jurors about their religious convictions and their attitudes toward assisted suicide could not be distributed to the jury pool in the Kevorkian case.
Cooper also has ruled that attorneys for both sides could not question the potential jurors in court on the matter.
Kevorkian, known as Dr. Death, has admitted helping or being present in at least 27 mercy suicides since 1990.
The law the retired pathologist is accused of violating, a ban on assisted suicides, has expired, but prosecutors are proceeding because they accuse Kevorkian of assisting in two suicides in 1993 when the law was still in force.
Kevorkian is accused of aiding the 1993 deaths of Merian Frederick, 72, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Dr. Ali Khalili, 61, of Oak Brook, Illinois. Both died at Kevorkian's Royal Oak apartment.
Kevorkian's attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, admits that charging his client with the crimes is legal, but he says it's not fair.
"It's the same as resurrecting somebody who violated the rum-running laws in prohibition and trying him now for that offense," said Fieger.
But prosecutors feel differently. They've been buoyed by medical examiners, like Dr. L.J. Dragovic, who have repeatedly ruled the deaths homicides, not suicides. (119K AIFF sound or 119K WAV sound)
Several opinion polls have revealed that a majority of people nationwide favor the right to physician-assisted suicide. One poll, released late last month by the University of Michigan, surveyed more than 1,100 doctors and residents. Fifty-six percent of the doctors and 66 percent of the residents favored legalizing physician-assisted suicides, as long as the practice was tightly regulated.
Fieger says if Kevorkian is convicted, he will die in prison by starving himself to death. "I'm telling you, I'm fighting for the man's life." (111K AIFF sound or 111K WAV sound)
If convicted, Kevorkian faces a maximum of four years in prison and a $2,000 fine on each count.
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Reuters contributed to this report.
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